24-year-old rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie has been focusing on music since a very young age, and challenges such as being on house arrest and being too shy to rap in front of people has certainly given him plenty of obstacles to overcome so early in his career. As he tells Rolling Stone for “The First Time,” it hasn’t been an easy ride to success.
A Boogie chats to Rolling Stone
He was in Florida when his producer Mr. Whyte came to him with a beat that would go on to form the backbone of “Temporary,” one of the rapper’s earliest songs. Although A Boogie was ready to record immediately, there was one slight problem. “I was on house arrest at the time, so I couldn’t really leave my house,” he recounts. “But [Mr. Whyte] was like, ‘You ain’t got no anklet – we out!’”
Further on in the interview, A Boogie reveals he was focused on music since a very young age, constantly carrying a notebook with him around school, but for lyrics instead of classwork. “It’s not one moment you’d see me in the classwork and think I was doing work,” he says. “Came out to be good though, came out for the better.”
Though he was focused on music, A Boogie was private about honing his craft, recalling that he was too shy to rap in front of friends, or even his mom. “I didn’t even want my mom to hear me curse,” he laughs.
Later in the episode, A Boogie talks about growing confidence in his music and his career, comparing himself to Michael Jackson and seeing him as competition even after his death, and started his own record label Highbridge. “It came as much from being in the hood, being bored a lot, and wanting to make a lot, a lot of money, and not thinking short term.”
